UFC 66: Just a drop in the bucket

It's hard not to get excited for UFC 66 tomorrow night.

The card comprises a nice mix of talented fighters and an electric showdown between rivals Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.

Certainly, it's one of the best events the UFC has put on in recent memory. And most likely, it will go down as the most successful show in the organization's relatively brief history.

In fact, Steve Seivert from the Houston Chronicle had this to say:

UFC 66, featuring Liddell-Tito Ortiz 2, is expected to be the biggest U.S. MMA event ever. The MGM Grand Garden should be sold out by fight time, with a live-gate in the $4 million neighborhood. The bigger business will be done on pay-per-view, where sales are projected to surpass 1 million — a first for mixed martial arts. Let me do the math for you, that's a staggering $40 million in revenue.

As a longtime UFC fan — and mixed martial arts in general — seeing the sport evolve to where it's at right now is nothing short of extraordinary.

Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that in two years the eye-popping stat above will look like peanuts when compared to current figures.

We don't have to look any further than UFC 67 on February 3. The more I look at this card — and the tentative ones lined up after that — it makes me realize that UFC 66 isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The first major UFC event next year — UFC 67 — will showcase the top welterweight (St. Pierre), middleweight (Silva), and heavyweight (Filipovic) fighters in the WORLD – not just in the UFC – all on the same card.

And, there's also a guy named Quinton "Rampage" Jackson making an appearance in the Octagon that night, too.

After that, we get treated to UFC 68 in March, which will feature MMA talents such as Rich Franklin, Matt Hughes, Mike Swick and Karo Parisyan. Of course, we can't forget the heavyweight champion who everyone loves to hate — Tim Sylvia — is also scheduled to get in on the action.

That's three former/current UFC champions on the same card in the same night.

So, while I sit back and watch "the biggest event in UFC history" tomorrow night, I'll have a little satisfaction in knowing that the moniker won't last long.

I'll give it two months.